The Journey towards Parity

IWD2022: are you in it?

A big thank you - if you clicked in to read. For those of you that feel exhausted from trying every year to close the gap and feeling you slid back even more during Covid, change and help is evolving. Please don’t lose hope.

?A huge Congratulations -if you are a woman who has continued to shatter the glass ceiling, lets reach out to those behind us.

?Finally last but not the least, if you are a male ally, please read forward. You are in the best position to help, even the tiniest gesture from a position of privilege can have huge impact on a marginalized journey.

?Let us take a few minutes to lean in, measure the gap as it stands today on IWD2021, and calibrate the path forward.

?This year we #ChooseToChallenge; I see four very simple choices in the Gender Journey support - being a coach, a connector, a champion or a change agent.

The shared path is rooted in the gap context: the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural, or economic attainments or attitudes. The?Global Gender Gap Index?measures it in four key areas: health, education, economics and politics.

?Education encompasses access to basic and higher levels of education, while health looks at life expectancy and politics examines the difference between how men and women are represented within decision-making organizations.

?In the corporate world, women in the boardroom is a metric that illustrates parity. Deloitte’s annual study shows women hold only 5.3 percent of board chair positions and 4.4 percent of CEO roles globally.

?Women in the Workplace study conducted by McKinsey & Company in 2020, shows while women are still underrepresented at every level in the corporate pipeline, the disparity is greatest in senior leadership.?It is the business roles that are more likely to lead to senior management roles and to lead to CEO roles, yet women’s representation in these positions is much lower compared to men. Inequality starts at the very first promotion. This is even more dramatic for women of color.?

?In an ideal world, considering a “full potential” scenario in which women participated in the economy identically to men, McKinsey concluded that this would add $28 trillion (26 percent) to annual global GDP by 2025 as compared to business as usual.

In reality,?at current pace of change, taking into consideration the current state of disparity,?the latest?World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report?estimates a staggering 257 years to close the gap on economic participation for women.

Where do we get started?

A good place to t is always within the everyday scope of span of influence and start from a place of comfort and confidence to best influence outcomes #ChooseToChallenge

?1.???Be a Coach:

Coaching can effectively help women who are struggling to overcome bias, make the necessary changes towards progress and parity. A coach can guide and inspire by sharing ways to detect and overcome patterns of pitfalls. For example, as a male ally, there is a wealth of proven tactics that lead to higher rate of promotion, or better salaries that can be beneficial for female colleagues to learn from.?As a female becoming a coach to a friend or colleague, the learnings can come from personal moments of “aha” that helped you in the past, as the patterns of bias remain consistent. You may or may not realize it, but most women spend an inordinate amount of time in their journey rationalizing their experiences as normal instead of challenging the status quo. So, whether you are male or female, if you have experience in accomplishing success, you can play the role of a coach to someone, who is still struggling to understand how they accept and confront a hurdle of disparity and subsequently strategize a course to overcome.

?Everyone can be a Coach to someone in need.

2.???Be a Connector:

We all begin our journey somewhat limited by our connections. Access is key to progress and parity. While in search of the right college, a good internship, the right job, the next promising project, the potential for promotion – nascent in that journey is a need for connection and credibility to decision makers. The closer an opportunity is to a glass ceiling, the gender gap in the network becomes wider. This is where the distance between Diversity and Inclusion become prominent. The bottom line is?-?if you have a connection to a decision-maker, and your credibility counts, bring in one person you know who isn’t connected. You can very easily become the connector who amplifies the reach of the network. One simple introduction can propel a million miles of progress for those isolated from privilege and opportunity.

?Expanding networks, and breaking down Cliques expedites the journey to parity.

?3.???Be a Champion:

Championing for Gender parity is an essential component in the Gender journey. It requires sense of fair play, empathy,?and willingness to lean into uncomfortable awkward stages of transformation. Research shows, that men are less likely than women to recognize both interpersonal and organizational forms of discrimination against women, and that they fail to recognize the severity of sexism when it occurs. What happens most commonly are less conspicuous expressions of sexism and they tend to take a heavy toll on women, as they are unfair, restricting, and condescending.

A champion would be someone who sits in the intersection of authority and awareness and in the moment of a marginalization, acknowledge it, speak up and create space for the impacted individual to be heard or recognized. A million little things add up and make unconscious bias systemic and stand in the way of parity. Without Champions, we can never get past the culture that allows disparity.?

?A great example of championship movement is HeforShe UNITED NATIONS Global Solidarity Movement For Gender Equality.

?4.???Be a Change Agent:

When your passion is strong and purpose is parity focused, and you are someone that doesn’t accept status quo – you are a prime catalyst for change. The leader who can confront systemic issues around gender parity, who can design and drive into reality programs and policy that helps transform frameworks and processes that led to current states of disparity in teams, departments, organizations, communities, government – whatever is within your span of accountability. While change agents can activate grass root level movements, impact is more when leaders drive change.

?In conclusion I would like to share an excerpt from HBR Research: Small Wins Can Make a Big Impact on Gender Equality

“Organizations need to surface the inequalities that are so obvious to women, particularly women of color, but largely invisible to (mostly white and male) leadership. While exposing these issues to the light may seem like a small win, closing the perception gap is an essential first step on the path toward equality”

I understand that achieving gender parity is a slow, arduous process. There is as much to be undone as there is to be done. The North Star remains a fairer, more inclusive world built on the principle of leaving no one behind. Let us reimagine the future in a way that embraces social, economic and environmental justice for all. Lets get started today. #Coach #Connector #Champion #ChangeAgent

Note: Views and opinions expressed on my profile are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of any entities I have been, am a part of now or will be affiliated with in the future.?